Gov. pushing ahead with privatized prison food

Gov. Rick Snyder says he intends to push ahead with plans to privatize food service for the state’s 45,000 prison inmates under a proposed $145 million, 3-year contract.

Snyder will consider objections from state Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, as well as unionized prison employees and others but won’t let them block the process, the governor told the Detroit Free Press for a story published Monday.

The State Administrative Board is slated to consider the contract Tuesday with Aramark Correctional Services of Philadelphia. The contract would eliminate 370 Corrections Department jobs.

The Snyder administration has said the change could cut prison food service costs by 20 percent, or about $16 million a year.

Casperson has said that the bidding process was flawed, as the Aramark bid did not require it to buy meat and dairy products from in-state suppliers while the Corrections Department as a matter of policy gets those supplies in-state, putting it a competitive disadvantage.

“If people are bringing up issues, we don’t ignore them,” Snyder said. “I just want to make sure, though, that we don’t let them delay something inappropriately, if they’ve already been reviewed.”

According to the Corrections Department, Aramark already employs 3,000 people in Michigan and serves meals for large companies — such as Ford and General Motors — and county jails. About 14,700 workers, or more than a quarter of all state employees, work in the Corrections Department.

Aramark has similar state prison contracts with Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, and in many cases hired displaced state workers.

The Michigan Civil Service Department is considering technical objections to the Aramark agreement, after which an appeal to the Civil Service Commission is possible.

“That is a separate process that we will not wait on,” said Kurt Weiss, spokesman for the state Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

Nick Ciaramitaro, legislative director for Michigan AFSCME Council 25 that represents the prison food workers, said he has been unable to review the proposed contract with Aramark because state officials told him it was still in draft form.